Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Justin M. Hansen, age 26, from Traverse City, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Service era: Afghanistan
Military history: 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Date of death: Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Death details: Died while conducting combat operations in Badghis Province, Afghanistan.
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Matthew S. Schwartz, age 34, from Traverse City, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Spouse: Jenny Schwartz
Children: Three children
Service era: Afghanistan
Schools: Traverse City Central High (1996)
Military history: 90th Civil Engineer Squadron, Fort Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming
Date of death: Thursday, January 5, 2012
Death details: Died in Shir ghazi, Helmand Province, Afghanistan when his vechile was struck by an improvised explosive device. Killed were Senior Airman Bryan R. Bell, Tech. Sgt. Matthew S. Schwartz, and Airman 1st class Matthew R. Seidler.
Source: Department of Defense, TV 7 & 4, Military Times
Dillon B. Foxx, age 22, from Traverse City, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Parents: Trina Pfua and Robert Lentz
Child: Kaiden Levi
Service era: Afghanistan
Military history: 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Date of death: Friday, February 5, 2010
Death details: Died in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. Enlisted May 2006.
Source: Department of Defense, WOOD TV,, U.S. Air Force, Mlive
Spencer Clark Akers, age 35, from Traverse City, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company B, 1St Battalion, 125Th Infantry (Ii Mef), Saginaw, Mi
Date of death: Thursday, December 8, 2005
Death details: died Dec. 8 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, of injuries sustained Nov. 21 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Habbaniyah, Iraq.
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
David R. Bousum, age 21, from Grand Traverse County Fife Lake, Michigan .
Parents: Gerald and Joanna Bousum
Service era: Beirut bombings
Schools: Kalkaska High (1980)
Date of death: Sunday, October 23, 1983
Death details: Among more than 200 military personnel killed in the terroist bombing of Marine headquarters in Beirut.
Source: White House Commission on Remembrance, Detroit Free Press (1983)
Richard Henry Defer, age 40, from Grand Traverse County Traverse City, Michigan .
Parents: Leo DeFer
Spouse: Mary
Children: Connie, Richard Jr., Martin, Mitchell
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Michigan State University graduate
Date of death: Monday, October 18, 1971
Death details: Hostile, killed, Laos
Source: National Archives, Arizona Republic (1971)
Ralph Henry VonDerHoff, age 22, from Traverse City, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Parents: Madelyn F. VonDerHOff
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, August 28, 1970
Death details: Hostile, killed, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, UPI (1970)
John Lawrence Burgess from Kingsley, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, June 30, 1970
Death details: Hostile, died while missing, body not recovered, South Vietnam; Army Spc. 5 John L. Burgess, of Sutton Bay, Mich., was the crew chief of a UH-1H Iroquois helicopter that crashed in Binh Phuoc Province, South Vietnam. Also, killed in the crash were 1st Lt. Leslie F. Douglas Jr., of Verona, Miss.; lst Lt. Richard Dyer, of Central Falls, R.I.; and Sgt. 1st Class Juan Colon-Diaz, of Comerio, Puerto Rico. Another crew member, Pfc. John Goosman, survived the crash and was rescued. Remains representing Dyer, Colon-Diaz, and Burgess, were buried as a group in a single casket, on July 2, 2013 at Arlington National Cemetery. On June 30, 1970, while on a command and control mission, the helicopter was struck by enemy fire, causing it to crash. Shortly thereafter, friendly forces recovered remains of Douglas, Colon-Diaz, and Dyer. The three men were individually identified and buried with full military honors. At that time, no remains were attributed to Burgess.From 1992 to 2012, more than a dozen joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams investigated the case, in Binh Phuoc Province, recovering human remains, personal effects, military equipment, and aircraft wreckage associated with this loss.Burgess was accounted for using forensic and circumstantial evidence.
Cemetery: Arlington National
Source: National Archives, Department of Defense
Gerald Douglas Tomlinson, age 20, from Traverse City, Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Parents: Carl L. Tomlinson
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, February 4, 1970
Death details: Hostile, killed, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, UPI (1970)
Rex S. Marietta from Michigan, Grand Traverse county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Thursday, July 9, 1942
Death details: Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves, often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war. Staff Sergeant Rex S. Marietta entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Michigan and served with the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of cerebral malaria on July 9, 1942, at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province. He was buried in a communal grave in the camp cemetery along with other deceased American POWs; however, his remains could not be associated with any remains recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Staff Sergeant Marietta is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency